Ernst: Checking what $5.7 million bought

By Eric Ernst

Sunday

Nov 28, 2010 at 12:01 AM

Some people cried "ripoff" in 2008 when Charlotte County spent $5.7 million to buy 30 acres of overgrown land on Thornton Key in Lemon Bay.

The money came from a voter-approved tax to buy environmentally sensitive land. Critics said the purchase would protect only 34 platted lots and left the county with a hard-to-maintain property accessible only by boat.

On Tuesday morning, that boat was full.

In probably the first guided tour of the land by the public, 12 visitors boarded a pontoon boat for a 20-minute ride to the key from Cape Haze Marina. The reservations went quickly for six trips scheduled over two months, said Bobbi Rodgers, who led the tour for the Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center.

The turnout probably has nothing to do with the controversy over the purchase, however. "Anytime you advertise a free boat trip to a barrier island, everyone signs up," Rodgers says.

Of course, nothing is really free either. Our taxes sponsor the trips, via an education grant from the Southwest Florida Water Management District, or Swiftmud, whose interest in the property lies in its location. The key sits in the estuary where the fresh water from Swiftmud's river and stream basins meets the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico.

Barrier islands play a part in a great natural system, and education, as well as purchases to conserve open land, help protect the system from the usual human excesses.

On Tuesday, the education started as the boat left the dock and passed an abandoned condo project on the mainland, its unfinished concrete skeleton rising above the water. The condo was contributing to erosion, degrading the water quality and disrupting the natural system. Assuming investors renew the construction and fill the building with inhabitants, things will only worsen.

At Thornton Key, Rodgers' observations focused primarily on plant life and the role native plants played in Florida's early development.

The sabal palm is a good example. Its wood served as the walls of homes for early settlers; its fronds became roofing material; its heart was cooked in a stew known as swamp cabbage. Pioneers even ate sabal palm berries, although Rodgers said she read of one account describing the taste as similar to "rotten cherries dipped in tobacco juice."

No doubt in the right hands, the key's hardwood hammocks, mangrove swamps and salt barrens can serve as a laboratory for conscientious observers to learn of the world around them.

As a park, though, Thornton Key is a work in progress -- literally.

Brazilian peppers have overrun the island. County staff and volunteers have cut them down, painted their stumps and hauled off the debris, but even with a $7,000 Swiftmud grant, they've barely managed to thin out the area enough so mangroves can breathe along the water.

With development surrounding the park, people drive vehicles on the few trails that have been cut. They got used to doing it before the county bought the land, and it's been hard to stop them considering no one is around most of the time.

Accessibility is also an issue. It may take awhile to get the word out. But the kayakers have already found it, and it's easy to spot the park dock once you know it is within sight of the docks for Rum Bay restaurant, which is well-marked as part of Palm Island Resort.

And there is hope for the Brazilian pepper eradication. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded the county $40,000 to help in the effort. Charlotte's natural resources manager Andy Stevens expects more work will start as soon as next month.

Whether the land was a good investment remains open to debate, although most conservation purchases have their pros and cons.

Only 15 percent of the world's coasts have barrier islands, a factor the federal wildlife agency may have recognized in its grant process. Charlotte scored high for the rarity of the property. Sometimes, when you're too close to something, you just don't realize its value.